A skin biopsy is a well known medical procedure for diagnosing skin disorders. A small cylindrical specimen of skin is excised with a cylindrical knife, commonly referred to as a biopsy punch for analysis in a pathology laboratory. After the specimen has been excised, the wound is repaired with sutures or butterfly bandages.
The difficulties with repairing a wound with sutures or butterfly bandages is that there is a likelihood of inducing excessive scar tissue and that some patients suffer anxiety during suturing of wounds.
In our co-pending applications Ser. Nos. 08/056,399 and 08/088,678, novel devices and methods, employing cylindrical gelatin sponges for repairing biopsy sites after the excising of skin biopsy specimens.